On September 4th, Interface News reporters learned from multiple informed sources that Taobao platform plans to fully introduce WeChat Pay, becoming a landmark event for the interoperability between Alibaba based platforms and Tencent.
Regarding the above-mentioned incident, some parties have informed Interface News reporters that there is currently no further response. As of press time, the latest version of Taobao has not yet launched WeChat Pay.
Regarding the comprehensive entry of WeChat Pay into Taobao, Wang Pengbo, an analyst at Broadcom Consulting, told Interface News reporters that this time, WeChat Pay has become a payment service provider for Taobao, which can be seen as a model of multi-party win-win. Cross cooperation between different platforms and payment tools is beneficial for improving payment convenience and boosting consumer vitality, which can bring better services to merchants and users on Taobao.
In addition, for the industry, the introduction of WeChat Pay by Taobao can be seen as an important milestone event in the payment industry, demonstrating the cooperation between more payment tools and platforms in the future, and also indicating that the industry has more opportunities to break the original pattern, providing more possibilities for payment technology innovation.
Interface News reporters have noticed that WeChat Pay's entry into Taobao has been brewing for nearly a year at the level of actual user perception.
As early as the eve of November 2023, many consumers discovered that WeChat Pay had quietly appeared on the payment page of Taobao platform, which once aroused considerable attention.
At that time, there were two ways to use WeChat Pay on Taobao. The first was to scan the QR code image provided by Taobao for WeChat Pay, but it could not automatically redirect to WeChat for payment; The second method is to copy the link and send it to WeChat friends for payment within the WeChat app. At present, neither method seems convenient.
In addition, according to feedback from multiple netizens, the "WeChat QR code payment" function on Taobao is mainly targeted at users who have not bound their cards or have no balance on the Taobao platform. For users who use WeChat Pay on Taobao, the single payment amount cannot exceed 300 yuan. This means that the "limited" access of WeChat payment is targeted at older users and other groups who have not yet opened Alipay accounts in the context of e-commerce market stock competition, so as to facilitate the consumption of such groups.
For a long time, the payment ecology of domestic Internet giants' platforms has been disconnected and shielded from each other. Until July 2021, the China UnionPay cloud flash payment app, known as the "national team" of payment, and the platform began to plan connectivity, and took the lead in opening interoperability cooperation with Alipay, and actively explored online payment and offline barcode connectivity and other fields.
In 2022, when the two major payment platforms of WeChat payment and Alipay have not been substantially interconnected, UnionPay Cloud Flash Payment APP has quietly completed the coverage of multiple mainstream e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, WeChat full volume small programs, JD, Pinduoduo, etc. in 2022.
The relevant person in charge of UnionPay told Interface News reporters that after three years of operation and accumulation from 2021 to now, over 36 million users and millions of merchants have been using the Cloud QuickPass and Banking apps on the Taobao app, and the active users and merchant scale have increased significantly compared to the initial launch.
In addition, it is not a bad news for Taobao's "own" payment platform Alipay to accelerate the "wall breaking" between platforms.
Wang Pengbo told reporters on the interface that, on the whole, the cooperation between Taobao and WeChat payment has little impact on Alipay. From the actual effect, Alipay is not the first time that Taobao has introduced more payment companies, and it has more than once accessed a new payment channel for Taobao. Alipay is still the preferred payment page for Taobao, and Alipay will still provide services for Taobao in the future.
He believes that the introduction of WeChat payment by Taobao will further "liberate" Alipay. In the past, both parties vaguely agreed that they would not set foot in each other's business field. With the more independent development of both parties, the incremental business that Alipay could not do before could also be promoted in a big way. It is expected that e-commerce business will gradually increase in the proportion of Alipay's revenue, which is another great benefit.